South Korea's finance minister ordered senior ministry officials on Monday to draw up tougher measures to counter the effect of surging international oil prices, his spokesman told reporters.
The minister, Lee Hun-jai, also said he would discuss the issue at a regular meeting of economic ministers on Friday, which the energy minister will also attend.
Lee specified no particular measures. Earlier this year the government responded to high oil prices by cutting its import duty on crude by 2 percentage points.
Rising oil prices are a particularly big concern for the South Korea economy, Asia's third largest, which relies wholly on imports for crude.
US light crude oil prices rose to a fresh 21-year high close to $44 a barrel earlier on Monday as a US security alert added to concerns about tight supplies in the world market.
Lee's comment came shortly after the latest government data showed July headline consumer inflation had accelerated to its highest since March last year because of higher oil and local transport prices.
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